The sky above the open ocean stretched wide and uninterrupted. I hovered there in quiet stillness, far removed from any land, any city, or any living presence that might be affected by what I was about to attempt.
The waves below moved in slow, rhythmic patterns, unaware of the change that was about to descend upon them.
I closed my eyes and drew a deep breath, allowing my awareness to settle inward. The flow of Essence within me had already reached a level far beyond what it once was, yet there remained a final boundary that I had not crossed.
This time, I did not approach it gradually. I gathered my Essence in full, directing it inward with absolute intent, channeling it simultaneously into all four attributes—Strength, Constitution, Dexterity, and Psynapse—without holding anything back.
The moment they crossed the threshold, the change began.
The Essence within my body grew denser, heavier, as though each particle had been compressed into something more fundamental. My physical form did not break under the pressure, but it reacted, adapting in real time as something deeper than simple enhancement took place. Then, almost immediately, my soul responded.
The expansion came like a tide that refused to be contained. My soul space stretched outward rapidly, breaking past its previous limits easily. I could feel its growth not as a number, but as presence, as if my very existence had expanded into a larger frame. The growth continued until it reached a point where it no longer advanced freely. It slowed, resisted, and then halted entirely.
Two hundred and fifty feet.
The boundary stood firm.
I understood in that moment that I had reached a threshold, but not the final one.
Before I could dwell on it, another transformation overtook me. A faint silver glow emerged across my skin, spreading naturally without any conscious effort on my part. It did not feel like Essence, nor did it behave like any energy I had controlled before. It was simply there, a manifestation of my body itself reaching a new state of existence.
As the glow stabilized, the world around me began to react.
My aura burst out of my body now silver in color. The ocean below shifted unnaturally, its surface trembling as waves flattened under an invisible force. The deeper layers of water churned in response, struggling against a pressure that had not been applied through any technique or law.
And then Vivi’s voice reached me, directly within my mind.
"You are hurting me."
The words were immediate and clear, carrying a strain I had never heard from her before. I opened my eyes at once, realizing what was happening. This was not simply an external effect. My presence, unchecked, was pressing against the very world she now governed.
I withdrew my control instantly, suppressing the expansion of that pressure. The strain on the ocean eased, and the surface slowly returned to its natural movement, though the lingering tension remained for a moment before fading completely.
Even after restraining it, the silver glow did not disappear.
I raised my hand slowly, studying it.
There was no Essence gathering.
No conscious manipulation of laws.
Yet the moment I moved my fingers, space itself responded. A faint crack formed in the air, a subtle fracture that spread outward before stabilizing, as though the structure of reality had been momentarily unable to bear the motion.
I turned my gaze downward toward the ocean and extended my hand.
This time, I pressed.
There was no buildup of energy, no visible technique, no invocation of power. The motion itself carried the force.
The ocean responded instantly.
A massive depression formed beneath my palm, the water forced downward as though struck by an overwhelming weight. The surrounding waves surged outward violently, displaced by the sheer impact of a force that had not been released, but simply existed.
I watched the result in silence. This was not the result of Essence. Nor was it the application of laws.
This was my body.
And for the first time, it had reached the level of a Saint.
I remained suspended above the ocean for a few moments, letting the realization settle within me. The silver glow still lingered faintly across my body, not fading like Essence would, but existing as something far more intrinsic. It was not energy I was channeling. It was what I had become.
Slowly, I closed my eyes and focused on it.
The glow responded. It did not move because I willed it to move, but it deepened as my awareness aligned with it. It felt heavier, more absolute, as though every cell of my body had begun resonating with a higher standard of existence. For the first time, I was not drawing power from somewhere else.
I was the source.
After a few moments, I exhaled and opened my eyes.
"Vivi," I said calmly, my voice carrying through the connection between us. "Repair the damage."
She paused.
"What damage?" she asked, sounding genuinely confused.
I looked down at the ocean below, where the unnatural disturbance I had created was still settling, the currents uneven and disrupted.
A small chuckle escaped me.
"Exactly."
Before she could respond, I moved.
My body shot upward.
There was no buildup of Essence, no activation of any technique. The moment I willed it, I accelerated, tearing through the sky with a force that the space around me struggled to contain. The air shattered behind me, cracks spreading like glass as I pierced through layers of atmosphere in an instant.
From below, I would have appeared like a streak of light, a falling star moving in reverse.
Within moments, I broke free of the planet. The vast expanse of the void opened around me, silent and endless.
I slowed.
Far below, Abor rotated steadily, its massive form illuminated by distant light. From this distance, it looked calm, almost peaceful, a sharp contrast to the power and density it held within.
I hovered there, watching it.
A faint smile formed on my face.
Then I turned.
And moved again.
This time, I pushed further.
My body surged forward through the void, speed increasing with every passing moment. There was no resistance, no limitation. The silver glow around me deepened as I accelerated, space cracking faintly in my wake as if unable to fully keep up with the movement.
Faster.
And faster.
Until even the stars blurred.
Eventually, I slowed as I reached the asteroid belt surrounding the planet, far enough that Abor now appeared distant, partially obscured by the scattered field of massive rocks drifting through space.
I came to a stop.
Floating among them.
I had heard about this before.
The Hollow Star had used this belt as more than just a natural boundary. It was a concealment system, something designed to hide an entire planet from detection.
I extended my perception.
And saw it.
A massive, layered formation woven through the asteroids. At first glance, it looked like natural distortion, but beneath that illusion was structure. Complex runic patterns flowed between the rocks, connecting them into a vast network.
Sealing laws.
Space laws.
And something else.
Something unfamiliar.
I narrowed my eyes slightly.
Dream.
A law I had never encountered before.
It did not behave like the others. It was not directly altering space or binding energy. Instead, it warped perception itself, blending reality with illusion in a way that made the entire formation appear nonexistent to those who lacked the ability to see through it.
I stepped onto a nearby asteroid and sat down.
"Right to Insight."
The world shifted.
Runes, patterns, and layers of law revealed themselves in intricate detail as my comprehension began dissecting the structure before me. Threads of sealing intertwined with spatial distortions, while the dream law flowed between them like a veil, masking everything beneath.
I leaned slightly forward.
This...
This was worth learning.